Kilkenny woman living in Australia receives Presidential Service Award

A Kilkenny-born woman who has lived in Sydney, Australia for over 30 years has been honoured with a Presidential Service Award for Irish Community Support.

Pam O’Mahony, native of Kilmoganny, made the decision to move to Sydney in 1989 for a year. She had graduated from Trinity College Dublin as a social worker and worked in Kildare for a time prior to the move. The intended one year in Sydney became 35 happy and prosperous years for Pam.

Upon her arrival into Sydney, Pam got involved with the GAA. She played for the Central Coast Ladies Gaelic Football team, donning the familiar colours of black and amber. She went on to enjoy three years of back-to-back achievements.

In 1993, she became secretary of the Central Coast GAA and was voted their Club Person of the Year in 1994. In 1995, she was appointed the inaugural Australasian Gaelic Games Ladies Football Manager. She was still a player at the time, and became Public Relations Officer for New South Wales GAA.

In 1997, Pam and her husband, Ned Sheehy, decided on a career change. They took over the Illinois Hotel in Sydney, where Pam became licensee and Bean an Ti.

Pam and Ned (who now works as President of the Australia GAA) worked to look after Irish emigrants arriving into Sydney, providing them with a bed, helping them to make friends and find a job.

The Illinois Hotel was a home away from home for many, becoming a central location for Irish Community groups. It was the meeting place for the New South Wales GAA, the Sydney St Patrick’s Day Organization, the Great Irish Famine Memorial Committee, and the Irish Welfare Bureau (now the Irish Support Agency).

Pam’s time in Sydney has also seen her involvement with Sydney’s St Patrick’s Day Organization, where she has successfully raised thousands of dollars and served in many positions including Vice President and Fundraising Co-Ordinator. She has also volunteered as the Sydney Rose of Tralee Selector and Mentor.

Pam, who is currently a presenter on the weekly Irish community radio programme Ireland Calling, was honoured with a Community Hero Award in 2019 by the Irish Friends of Labor St Brigid’s Day Celebrations.

Thomas O’Keeffe, President of the Kerry Association and a long-time friend of Pam’s, said: “Pam is the living example of the ‘strong Irish woman’, in the best tradition of the past generations of strong family women, most unheralded, who overcame countless obstacles sometimes just to survive and occasionally to prosper and succeed, which she has done in her business.”